How The Ipcress File is bringing 1960s espionage chic to life
telegraph.co.ukThe Ipcress File is one of them, not least because of the sumptuous clothes; Lucy Boynton’s burgundy red skirt suits, turquoise floral evening dresses and baby blue roll-neck coats with a bow at the neck made me want to rewind time and swear off jeans and leggings forever.The show is set in 1963, before the arrival of Mary Quant’s bottom-skimming minis but after the trend for full-skirted, lightly corseted New Look dresses.
It was a major turning point in fashion and arguably one of the most stylish periods of the last century. The Ipcress File costume designer Keith Madden – who describes this job as “just the most fun” – agrees, saying it was a rare era where both the male and female silhouettes were flattering, and where tailoring was elegant but no longer restrictive.
Madden used Audrey Hepburn and Jean Shrimpton as inspiration for the brittle but beautiful Jean Courtney, and had most of Boynton’s clothes made, using either his own designs or Vogue patterns from 1962.
Vintage stores proved a treasure trove for hats and Madden found an array of tangerine orange and leopard print designs by Dior and Givenchy.“I realised doing this show that a hat finished every outfit off,” he says, “and when it wasn’t there, the silhouette looked almost incomplete.
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